Santos Alcocer

Given its troubled production history and its role in early Spanish horror cinema, it may be unfair to refer to "Cauldron of Blood" (El Coleccionista de Cadáveres) as "Cauldron of Crap", but this is an unrelentingly poor piece of work. The story (by John Melson and Edward Mann) is unintelligible nonsense about a visiting travel journalist Claude (Jean-Pierre Aumont) seeking out renowned but retired sculptor Franz Badulescu (Boris Karloff). He finds the blind, infirm artist working on a final project but held virtual prisoner by his powerful wife Tania (Viveca Lindfors) who is helping out with the sculpture armatures in a particularly gruesome manner. The film was originally developed for Claude Rains who died during pre-production, with a fragile Karloff subsequently taking over. The film was plagued with any number of difficulties and languished for around three years before being finalised and seeing a release. It is easy to see why - the story is a confused mish-mash which seems to run from sunny travelogue and into a gialloesque murder-mystery by way of pop culture whimsy, with dark hints of sexual deviancy. It is full of loose ends and blind alleys which aren't helped by the low budget and director Santos Alcocer's treacle-like approach, his disjointed storytelling and the sleep-inducing pacing that he gives the film. Boris Karloff, despite bring in the very twilight of his career still makes for a commanding presence, which starkly counterpoints with Jean-Pierre Aumont who is frankly ridiculous. Viveca Lindfors steals the show (if this is a show that can be stolen!) as an over-the-top bisexual S&M player who's partial to a Nazi-like costume and riding crop. Dyanik Zurakowska is also worth mentioning for her sex-kitten role as Karloff's muse. There is probably a decent story lurking somewhere deep within "El Coleccionista de Cadáveres" but the appalling disjointed and appallingly slow pace of the film made it an absolute struggle to work through despite the presence of the great Boris Karloff.… (mehr)